Saturday, April 23, 2011

Complete Robot

It was Isaac Asimov who coined the word “robotics” almost forty years ago. No less than seven of his collections have included stories of metal, plastic, and even organic mechanical men (and a woman or two as well, not to mention a dog) whose positronic brains lead them - usually with a little human assistance - into every variety of situation, often of the most unexpected sort and with the most unlooked for consequences. Now Asimov’s robot tales have been gathered under one cover for the first time. IN THE COMPLETE ROBOT’S thirty one stories you’ll meet Robbie, the faithful nursemaid, and Tony, whose thoughtful and considerate attentions to a lonely wife provoke an all-too-human response. There are robots who do not behave as they were designed to, robots who obey their iridium brains all too literally, and robots who aspire to humanity. And then there are the humans: Mike Donovan and Greg Powel, the field testers for experimental models: Peter Bogert, Alfred Lanning, Gerald Black, and the rest of the U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men research and development staff - and especially the company’s chief robot-psychologist, the steely Dr. Susan Calvin. Here is every last one of Isaac Asimov’s robot stories, including some which have never before appeared in a book. Asimov fans, science fiction fans, robot fans, and those who love entertaining, logical, puzzling, and stimulating tales will all welcome THE COMPLETE ROBOT.